Dragonball Evolution is the latest in a line of comic to live action films (in this case Japanese comic or manga to live action) to hit the big screen, it was originally going to be released last year during the summer however with bigger films out this film would have been underwhelmed by green Goliath's, iron men and a guy running around dressed like a bat.
The film is based on Akira Toriyama's Dragonball series which is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year, follows high school student Son Goku (Justin Chatwin) as he trys to collect the 7 mystical Dragonballs before the Demon King Piccolo (played by a rather green looking James Marsters) aided by tech whiz Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and martial arts master Muten/Master Roshi (played by Chow Yun Fat).
Dragonball Evolution is a very short film with a run time of less than 90 minutes and suffers because of it, there feels like there were a lot of things cut from the film especially the final battle which is a bit of a let down. The film does have some rather cool action sequences such as Goku's training session with his grandfather and the battle deep underground against Piccolo's 'children'. But with a short run time there's hardly enough face time with the villain Piccolo, to get the reason why he wants to use the Dragonballs. Other things like the tournament which was a major part of the Dragonball world gets less than 5 minutes screen time and thus hardly seems worth it until you realise why it was included later on.
Most of the characters translate well in a live action scenario, but do have a few changes which woks well for example Bulma is looking for the Dragonballs to help power the world in the film while in the manga and the anime she is searching for the Dragonballs so that she can get a boyfriend. However Muten Roshi's character has been slightly toned down although he still hasone or two moments of being a bit of a dirty old man.
Dragonball Evolution is a fun film with some great physical comedic moments especially Goku's unique way of tackling the bullies in his school. While not strictly a faithful adaption of Toriyama's manga (but then what comic book film is) there are enough small moments from the manga that are translated on screen to keep diehard fans happy including a small reference to another anime Shadow Skill at the end of the film, theres also an extra scene after the main end credits which alludes to a sequel.
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